With the increasing popularity of ultra-thin notebook computers and tablet computers, keyboards for these thin notebook computers and tablet computers also are continually evolving toward thinness.
In the structure of a thin keyboard, a scissor-type supporting mechanism (also referred to as a scissor) mostly is used as a supporting and positioning structure of a keycap of the keyboard. The keyboard structure using the scissor-type supporting mechanism generally comprises a base, a keycap, a scissor-type component, a resilient dome, and a conductive film. The scissor-type component is connected between the keycap and the base, for positioning the keycap above the base in a movable upward and downward manner.
A conventional scissor-type component mostly is manufactured from a POM resin material by injection molding. However, with the current trend of thin keyboards, the material thickness of the scissor-type component is reduced, and the use of the POM material in the fabrication of the scissor-type component will face the problem of insufficient structural strength, resulting in easy bending of the scissor-type component when the keycap is pressed, thus causing the tilting of the keycap and the situation of false key triggering.
In view of the above reasons, the conventional scissor-type component made of the POM resin material cannot meet the requirements of thin keyboards. Thus, how to improve the structural strength of the scissor-type component used for the thin keyboards by modifications in structural design such that it can be further thinned to meet the requirements of reduced size of parts for ultra-thin keyboards while improving stability has become one of major issues to be solved in the art.